This application generally relates to communication between electronic control units (ECUs) in a vehicle, and particularly between one or more ECUs associated with an electric power steering (EPS) system in the vehicle and other ECUs in the vehicle.
Increasing reliance on automatic driving assist systems (ADAS) has resulted in one or more controllers of various subsystems in a vehicle to communicate with each other. For example, the communication facilitates the subsystems to share information, in turn facilitating a subsystem to react to actions being taken by other subsystems automatically.
In addition, increasing vehicle safety requirements are driving system redundancy to achieve higher safety levels. Redundancy is achieved by proliferation of the control system of the vehicle, to the extent of having redundant ECUs and corresponding sensors. This in turn demands a robust and failsafe communication method between the two or more ECUs and the multiple sensors. A failure of a sensor corresponding to one ECU may have an adverse effect on the overall system performance, leading to a safety hazard.
Accordingly, it is desirable to have a failsafe communication system that facilitates ECUs to determine signals based on sensor signals from multiple sensors, even those corresponding to other ECUs in the system.